


Beautiful Either Way

by Thatsrightmyhype



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Cuddling, Cute boy wearing a dress, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, completely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 02:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatsrightmyhype/pseuds/Thatsrightmyhype
Summary: Inspired by a reddit post of F1 drivers as women. Carlos walks in on Lando dressing like a girl. Cuddling and comforting ensues.'Lando wonders if this is how he’d be photoshopped to look. Maybe they’d give him an orange eyeshadow to represent McLaren and a deep red lip to match his skin tone. Either way, he’s happy with his choices.'





	Beautiful Either Way

"Lando, come have a look at this,' Carlos calls from across the McLaren garage, phone in hand.

Lando looks up from where he himself had been updating his Twitter feed and walks over, smiling at his teammate who's looking on the verge of hysterical laughter.

"Check out what this fan made, it's hilarious!' He says, holding the screen up to Lando's face, 'Don't they all look beautiful!"

Lando raises an eyebrow at his team mate’s amusement before taking the phone. It's a long, scrolling post of some of the current F1 drivers photoshopped to look like girls. There's Charles looking every bit as stunning as a woman as he is a man, Lewis makes a surprisingly pretty girl with the lack of facial hair, Sebastian still looks quite manly but his soft smile in the photos they used seems to help. Lando can’t help the nervous twitch in his fingers as he scrolls through to see if there’s one of him. He breathes a sigh of relief when there’s not.

"Come on, it's funny right?' Carlos says as he nudges Lando's shoulder and he realises he's not actually said anything about the post at all.

"Yeah, it's really funny,' he replies, forcing a little laugh out.

"Some are better than others,' Carlos says solemnly, taking the phone back and scrolling through the images again before his laughter starts once more.

Lando huffs out another laugh, hoping that Carlos hasn’t noticed his out of character behaviour.

Later in the evening, when everything in the hotel is deadly silent and he has no fear of interruption, Lando gets up from where he's been lying for hours on top of his bedsheets, heart racing and mind a mess. He opens his suitcase, haphazardly pulling out all the piles of clothes that had once been neatly folded and unzips the compartment at the side. He pulls out a sleek black wash bag and a paper bag and makes his way to the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, he's looking at himself in the mirror and another person is staring back at him. He's put on his favourite rusty lipstick and he smacks his lips together, spreading the colour evenly and making his lips appear plush and full. Golden eyeshadow and black, precise flicks line his eyes, framed with a layer of mascara. He turns his head slowly in the mirror, watching as the light glints off of the soft highlight he had applied to the top of his cheekbones and gives himself a small smile.

Lando wonders if this is how he’d be photoshopped to look. Maybe they’d give him an orange eyeshadow to represent McLaren and a deep red lip to match his skin tone. Either way, he’s happy with his choices.

Reaching for the paper bag, he pulls out a lace bralet and a long-sleeved and soft red dress with capped sleeves and a tie waist. He slips the items on, looking up once again into the mirror and admiring himself. He wishes he had brought a wig with him, just to be fully immersed in the illusion and he experiments a black bucket hat just to cover up the last original part of him. Deciding he doesn’t like it, he tries to style his hair a little bit more to compensate. He moves away from the mirror and really looks.

He's been doing this for a while now, every movement fluid with practised gestures. He can still remember his shaking hand applying lipstick for the first time, outline smudged and tears rolling down his cheeks for reasons he didn’t fully understand. He’d taken it from his parent’s room while they were out and scrubbed and scrubbed to get it off once he had stared at his painted face in the mirror without blinking for long enough. His fingers don’t shake anymore.

He stays dressed up for a while, just turning in the mirror, fingers playing with the hem of the dress, trying his best to look flirtatious and flutter his coated eyelashes at the imaginary man he's attempting to seduce. He closes his eyes and instead of a blank face, the imaginary man is now Carlos, smiling at him the way he does when he's done something particularly mischievous.

"What do you think?' Lando asks him shyly, swaying his hips.

"Beautiful Lando,' he whispers back and Lando grins widely, ‘Definitely the prettiest out of all the other drivers!”

He's snapped back to reality by a quiet knock on the door. His heart plummets right into the soles of his feet.

"Hey Lando,' comes Carlos' voice, 'Are you awake?"

Lando stays completely still, not even daring to breathe. He feels like if he looked down, he would see his heart physically thumping out of his chest. Maybe if Carlos thought that Lando was asleep, he would just leave? Unfortunately, luck was not on his side. The scraping of the keycard through the slot sprang Lando into action. He lunged for the door, holding it shut tight against Carlos' pushing, desperately scraping his bare feet across the floor in an attempt to get more leverage. The door stills. Lando feels sick.

"Lando,' Carlos says through the door, 'What's wrong?"

"I...I,' Lando stutters, fingers trembling against the wood, 'I don't want you to see me."

There's a long pause on the other side of the door, so long that Lando thinks that Carlos could've left. He’s trying his best to hold back tears, knowing how irritating it is to his eyes when he gets mascara in them but he’s struggling. He’s always been so good at hiding this part of himself, this can’t be how he’s found out!

"Open the door Lando,' Carlos says softly, 'There's nothing you can do that'll surprise me."

'Wanna bet?' Lando thinks to himself but feels his resistance weaken. Carlos is his friend and he can’t bear to hear the worry in his voice through the wood. He grips the handle and pulls, immediately retreating to the corner of the room furthest away. He hears footsteps approach him, softly padding against the carpet before a warm hand touches his shoulder. It forces him to turn around and Lando complies, eyes downcast. Carlos lets out a shaky exhale and Lando observes him through his eyelashes.

His eyes are blown wide as he looks Lando up and down, fingers dancing absentmindedly across the edges of the capped sleeves of the dress and leaving goosebumps on Lando’s arms where they brushed against skin. Lando breathes out heavily from his nose and looks down at the floor.

“You…you look,’ Carlos says and Lando looks up a little, not quite meeting his eyes, ‘So pretty Lando.”

Now he fully meets Carlos’ eyes, feeling like those words were a physical blow.

“What?!’ He hisses, completely confused.

Carlos gives him a calming smile, firmly clasping both his shoulders and rubbing his thumbs reassuringly against Lando’s exposed collar bones.

“You heard,’ he teases, ‘Very pretty Lando. Much better than all the other drivers, hm?”

Lando lets out a stilted laugh that turns into a sob of relief. Carlos pulls him in close and hugs him.

“You look pretty normally too,’ Carlos whispers against his hair, ‘However you dress, you will always be the most beautiful person to me.”

Lando has given up all hope of preventing his tears now and is full on sobbing into Carlos’ grey hoodie.

“I thought you’d be angry,’ Lando says eventually, rubbing his eyes and knowing he looks like a total mess, ‘Or grossed out or…or something.”

Carlos chuckles, cupping Lando’s face with one of his large, warm hands.

“You are happy, yes?’ He asks, ‘When you’re dressed like this?”

Lando nods shyly. He doesn’t want to dress like this all the time but there are just moments where this is more…him. It feels right and he’s had to hide it for so long.

“Then I could never be angry about something that makes you happy.”

There’s a quiet pause where Carlos pulls Lando closer to him, happiness shooting through every single vein in his body.

“What about when I beat you at Fifa?’ Lando responds cheekily and Carlos rolls his eyes, making a noise of fond exasperation.

“Obviously I will be angry if you beat me at Fifa,’ he says, ‘But it never happens so I never need to.”

Lando hits the other man on the arm lightly in jest and smiles widely.

“I’m sorry, your make-up is ruined,’ Carlos says, brushing a thumb under Lando’s eye to try and remove some of the running mascara and eyeliner.

“That’s okay,’ Lando says, finally stepping away from his teammate and making his way to the bathroom, ‘You’ll just have to see me in my full glory another time.”

“Please,’ Carlos says quietly and when Lando turns around to look at him, he looks so hopeful and sweet he can almost feel himself tearing up again.

They stand still for a second, just watching each other before Lando bashfully turns back towards the bathroom, a small smile on his face. He carefully removes the smudged makeup and changes back into a pair of boxer shorts and an oversized sweater, meticulously folding the dress and placing all his makeup back into his nondescript wash bag. He emerges from the bathroom and Carlos is lounging on the bed, scrolling through his phone and looking like he belongs there. He glances up at Lando as he comes back in and grins widely.

“See, just as pretty now,’ he says and beckons a blushing Lando over.

He takes a seat between Carlos’ legs, holding his knees under his chin as Carlos’ arms circle around him safely.

“Why did you come to my room anyway?’ Lando asks and Carlos chuckles.

“I couldn’t sleep, I had a feeling in my stomach that something was happening and I couldn’t go to bed without just checking up on you,’ he replies, pressing a small kiss against the top of Lando’s head, ‘I’m glad I did.”

“Me too,’ Lando says as he leans against Carlos’ body.

Soon they move to lie down, bodies entwined and falling into deep peaceful slumber.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this fic! I just had this idea and ran with it, it's my first F1 fanfic so any constructive criticism is welcome! Everything in this work is fictional & please don't repost anywhere. Hope you enjoyed!


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